Computer games are games played on computer systems. The computer systems typically include a microprocessor, a visual display, a sound generator and one or more input devices like a keyboard, joystick or mouse. The game displays images on the visual display and produces sound through the sound generator. The images and sounds depict the action of the game. A computer game may also be referred to as a simulation, video game or adventure game.
Computer games are controlled by software code executed by the computer system. Software code is simply a series of instructions specifying what images and sounds the computer produces, either automatically or in response to signals from a game player through the input device. Games are played by inputting signals in response to images or sounds generated by the game. The proper signal at the proper time produces a predefined action in the game. The software code includes instructions to recognize and respond to signals input by the game player through the user input device. The software code is typically stored in memory accessible by the computer system on devices like hard disks, floppy disks or CD-ROM disks.
In an interactive computer game, a person playing the game enters commands which affect the action and course of the game. For example, the game may have a main character and the game player may instruct the character to walk across the screen and look behind a rock. That action may result in the game player finding an object like a camera behind the rock, which can then be used later on in the game. Two different people can each play an interactive computer game very differently, with different sequences of events, depending on the actions taken by each player. Virtually any topic can be the subject of an interactive computer game, for example, ecology, flight simulation, science fiction, fantasy or history.
An interactive computer game starts as the idea of a game designer. The designer develops the concept, characters and major events in the game. Artists then produce storyboards, or pictures combining art and text, to illustrate the major scenes and actions in the game. Artists and animators draw the different scenes and events that will take place in the game. The drawings are then scanned into a computer where they are colored and shaded. The different drawings are then strung together to create the appearance of continuous motion. Music is also written and recorded for the game.
A script for the game is also prepared by writers, including messages that different characters or objects in the game may communicate to the person playing the game. The messages may take many forms, including written text displayed on a computer screen or an audio recording played to the game player by a sound generator.
Software programmers are the people who actually write the software code that controls the game. The programmers take the data defining the scenes, script and music, combine it with game commands that a player may use while playing the game, and write the actual code. The game is then tested and revised if necessary. After all that, the game is copied onto floppy disks, CD-ROM disks or other memory devices. The game is usually divided into separate files on the floppy disks. Files are distinct groups of information. For example, a code file would include software code and a music file would include music. The floppy disks or other memory devices are then packaged, usually with a game manual, and sold.
One of the difficult steps in creating an interactive computer game is to relate actions selected by a game player with messages that the game designer wants to communicate to the player when a predefined action is selected. For example, if a player selects one action, like looking behind a rock, then the game designer may want to communicate a message responsive to that action, like "There is a camera behind the rock!" If the player never looks behind the rock, then he never would find the camera. In the past the game designer had to inform the programmers about each message and the programmers had to include each message in the code controlling the game. If the designer subsequently changed the message, then the actual code controlling the game had to be changed.
This invention provides a new method and apparatus for relating messages and actions in interactive computer games. It allows the game designers to create and subsequently change messages, and relate the messages to predefined actions in the game, without requiring programmers to include the messages in the software code or to change the code. That allows creative individuals like writers to contribute to the game's creation without being skilled software programmers.
One of the primary advantages of the invented method is that it allows interactive computer games to be easily converted from text messages to audio messages, or vice versa, without any programmer intervention and without changing code. The method also allows messages, either text or audio, to be easily changed to different languages or to be changed for subsequent versions of the game. The method also helps reduce the time to debug or fix the game because it reduces the amount of code and because the messages are more accessible.